Mashable

ANKARA, Turkey—Yasar's son was only 14 when he left his home in Ankara, Turkey, to join the deadliest group in the Middle East.

Telling his father he was going with his older brother to sell vegetables in a market outside the city, he instead hitched a ride with four friends to Syria, where he was inducted into the radical militant group, the Islamic State.

When Yasar got the call from his son, he was horrified but not surprised. For a while, people in the neighborhood had been talking about children and young men traveling more than 500 miles to Syria to join the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIL or ISIS.) And his son had recently begun praying five times a day.

A socialist with little interest in religion, Yasar at first had thought that his son's display of piety was better than a life devoted to drugs which are all too common in their neighborhood.

But he hadn't realized how far things had gone.

Yasar standing near his home in the Hacibayram neighborhood of Ankara, Turkey.

Jodi Hilton, Mashable

“I said, 'no, this is my son. The boy is Turkish.'”

Fearful for his son's life, Yasar begged him to come home. But the boy refused. He said he was enjoying his time in Raqqa, a radical stronghold, studying Islam and Arabic, swimming and playing volleyball.

Yasar didn't hear from his son again until late last month when the teenager called from a hospital in southeastern Turkey, asking his father to come and take him home.

The boy had been injured in a bomb blast that had sent shrapnel into his genitals. Other members of the Islamic State had rushed him to the Syrian-Turkish border for treatment. He was signed into a hospital under the pseudonym Mehmed al-Mehmed, causing confusion when his father arrived.

A press clipping showing Yasar with his son in a Turkish hospital.Jodi Hilton, Mashable

Police called to the hospital brought along an Arabic translator and puzzled over Yasar's interest in the case. “'This is an ISIL fighter. He's Arab,'" Yasar recalls police saying. “I said, 'no, this is my son. The boy is Turkish.'”

His son was eventually able to leave the hospital and return home with his father on condition that he receive psychological counseling, Yasar said. He added that authorities have not followed up with his family and that his son, who has vowed not to return to Syria, will recover at home and return to school as soon as he can.

Children play with toy guns in Hacibayram.

Jodi Hilton, Mashable

The Islamic State's aggressive recruitment effort — both online and via word-of-mouth — has lured thousands of foreign fighters to join the radical group, with recruits traveling from Europe, the Middle East and even parts of the U.S. to fight in Syria and, more recently, in Iraq.

Aiming to tip the balance against the Syrian dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, Turkey initially opened its borders to jihadi fighters, including many from within the country.

But rather than end the war, it instead strengthened the militant group, allowing it to defeat more moderate elements within the Syrian resistance and to subsequently to carve a bloody path through Iraq, sending tens of thousands people fleeing and threatening the stability of the entire region.

When the radical group kidnapped dozens of Turkish citizens —including the consul general in Mosul — it served as a wake-up call to Turkey, which is now trying to stem the tide of militants flowing across its borders, though the damage may already be done.

Government officials estimate that more than 1,000 Turks have joined the group, according to local media reporters, though observers believe the real number is higher — and still rising.

A Turkish man, center, who says he is a member of the Islamic State and will be moving his family to Raqqa in Syria.

Jodi Hilton, Mashable

In Yasar's crime-ridden neighborhood in the heart of Ankara alone, locals estimate that as many as 100 young men have traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State. During a recent visit to the Hacibayram neighborhood, several men openly admitted to being members of the militant group, home on a break — though all spoke on the condition of anonymity.

One man — a bearded, former alcoholic, who wore a casual T-shirt — bragged that his accommodations in Raqqa were like “a 5-star hotel.” His home in Hacibayram is a crumbling walk-up that he shares with his wife and their two toddlers.

The man said that once his holiday break was over, he would bring his entire family to Syria. Another Turk in his early 30s explained that the radical group in Raqqa provided recruits with free food, Internet access and a small monthly stipend.

Neither of the men had fought yet — they said they were still training, spending most of their time studying Islam and Arabic— but they said they hoped to soon help “defend the borders of Allah.”

Rubble from demolished buildings gives the Hacibayram neighborhood the look of a war zone. The urbanization plan is blamed for the rise in juvenile delinquency and youth joining ISIS.

Jodi Hilton, Mashable

The transformation of Hacibayram into a pipeline for radical fighters didn't take place overnight. Residents describe a slow radicalization, sparked in particular by two events predating the war in Syria.

First, the area — home to a historical mosque on the Ankara tourist circuit — was targeted for an aggressive urban redevelopment plan. The government brought in bulldozers to remove the impoverished blight from the otherwise attractive city center, reducing homes, businesses and the neighborhood's only elementary school to piles of rubble.

Many residents lost work and chose to keep their children home rather than send them to school several miles away. Abandoned and partially demolished structures became magnets for homeless families and refugees, and fertile ground for a radical imam looking for followers.

A historical mosque in the middle of the Hacibayram that is part of a large redevelopment plan.Jodi Hilton, Mashable

Several residents of Hacibayram spoke of the imam who preached in an underground mosque not affiliated with the recently restored and government-run mosque in the center of the neighborhood. Little by little, men who had passed their days drinking began growing beards and praying five times a day.

So it was for Yasar's son, whose sudden interest in prayer began just a month after he dropped out of school. Shortly after, he went to Syria. Yasar, however, believes that it wasn't the imam who persuaded his son to join the Islamic State but the groups recruiters who the boy met online, surfing the web at a local Internet cafe.

Social media has played a powerful role in the radical group's recruitment strategy. Potential fighters are approached in multilingual web forums, according to Oytun Orhan, a Syria researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies in Ankara. Orhan notes that some charitable organizations locally have also been accused of aiding the recruitment effort.

Syrian refugees who moved into Hacibayram after many Turkish families abandoned their homes when the urban renewal project began.

Jodi Hilton, Mashable

Yasar blames the government for allowing his neighborhood to grow into a breeding ground for religious extremists and for allowing his boy to travel unquestioned into Syria.

“How can a 14-year-old boy cross the border without a passport?” he asks.

Yasar claims that when he reported that his son had left to join the Islamic State in Syria, he was turned away by counter-terrorism officials who asked for stronger evidence.

When asked for comment, Interior Ministry officials did not respond.

Yasar declined to make his son available for an interview, though his story was common knowledge in his neighborhood.

Men in front of a small restaurant in Hacibayram.

Jodi Hilton, Mashable

Another lifelong Hacibayram resident, who has witnessed the radicalization of his neighbors, points an accusatory finger at the country's Islamist-leaning Prime Minister, now President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“If he doesn't want [the Islamic State,] then he has to stop the teaching of Sharia law here,” he says. “The prime minister is guilty.”

The elderly man, who, like many other residents didn't want to be named, said that members of his own family who married supporters of the militants have turned their backs on him.

“They call us infidels,” he said, adding that the militants go “back and forth to Syria like they're going to their neighbor's house.”

He suspects members of the radical group are storing automatic weapons in their homes. But he is prepared to fight, he says, should they bring their holy war to his neighborhood of Hacibayram.

“We all have guns,” he says. “We won't let them touch us. We're not afraid of anything but God.”